6. Finding an Address

Figure 89: Main Menu 1 of 3

The GO 740 provides several ways to navigate to a destination, but probably the most common method is to enter a street address as a destination.

To begin entering a street address, tap the screen to view the Main Menu, shown above, and then tap "Navigate to..."

Figure 90: Choosing a Destination Type

The "Navigate to..." screen, shown above, allows you to choose what type of destination address you want to route to:

• Home - route to the saved Home address
• Favorite - route to a saved address
• Address - Enter a street address
• Recent Destination - Route to a recently found address
• Point of Interest - Search the POI (Point of Interest) database for a business (restaurant, hotel, gas station, grocery store, etc.)

In this example we'll be entering a street address as our destination, so we'll tap on "Address" to continue.

Figure 91: Choosing an Address Entry Method

The GO 740 allows you to enter a street address in a number of useful ways:

• City center - if you don't have a particular street address, and just want to drive to the center of town (useful for exploring small towns)
• Street and house number - probably the method you'll most commonly use, this button allows you to enter a complete street address.
• Zip Code - if you know the postal code for the destination address, entering the Zip Code can be faster than spelling out city names (and less error prone)
• Cross street or intersection - allows you to enter two street names and route to a particular intersection
• Spoken address - use this method to enter an address using both speech and by tapping the screen
• Spoken address (dialog) - tap this button to enter an address using only speech. The GO 740 can recognize the following commands: Yes, No, Back, Done, OK, Crossing, as well as street names, place names, and numbers.

I'll tap on "Street and house number" to continue.

Figure 92: Entering the City Name

The GO 740 pre-populates the "City" screen with a list of the most recently found cities. You can choose one of the recently used city names, or use the on-screen keyboard to enter a different city name.

Notice the green New York State icon (the green box that says NY) -- as you type out the city name, results will be restricted to names within the currently selected State (New York, in this case). If you want to change the State, tap on the green State name box and choose a different State:

In this example we'll be driving to an address in New York City. After selecting NY as the State, I start to spell out New York using the on-screen keyboard. As I enter letters (N-E-W-SPACE-Y-O), the GO 740 is constantly updating the list of matching names.

Once enough letters have been entered, I can simply tap on the correct city name from the results list. I'll tap on "New York NY" to continue.

Unfortunately, there's no way to search across all States for a given city or town name. You'll need to know which State your destination address is located in. This may not sound like an issue (after all, who doesn't know what State their destination is in), but when driving to an address close to the border between two States, it's not always obvious which State you're driving to.

Figure 93: Select Street Name

Like the City entry screen, the Street entry screen displays recently found streets, and filters the results as you type.

In this example I'll be routing to an address on Central Park West in New York, so I tap out C-E-N-T-R-A-L and the GO 740 produces a list of all streets beginning with the word "Central".

The on-screen keyboard can be hidden or shown by tapping on the triangle button in the upper-right corner of the screen (handy if you need to scroll through a long list of names and want to see more than 2 at a time).

I'll tap on "Central Park W" to continue.

Figure 94: Entering the House Number

Using the on-screen keypad, enter the house or building number of your destination address.

The GO 740 doesn't display the valid range of house numbers for the chosen street - a handy feature if you're not exactly sure of the house/building number. However, TomTom does provide a convenient "Cross street" option if you change your mind and want to enter a cross street instead of a house number.

Figure 95: Do you ned to arrive at a particular time?

A great feature unique to TomTom is the ability to specify a desired arrival time. Once set, the GO 740 can tell you how early or late you will arrive at your destination.

After entering the destination address, the GO 740 asks if we need to arrive by any particular time. Tapping "No" continues on to the route calculation page. Tapping "Yes" allows you to enter the desired arrival time.

Figure 96: Estimated Arrival Time on Map Screen

If a desired arrival time has been set, the GO 740's map screen will show how early or late you'll arrive at your destination.

I love this feature. The ability to quickly see how early or late you'll arrive makes driving that much less stressful, and removes the need to manually figure out if you're remaining drive time will make you late or early.

As much as loved this feature, TomTom's estimated arrival time had a tendency to vary wildly based on short-term driving patterns. For example, on an hour-long journey, if I drove for 85 MPH for 60 seconds, the arrival time would suddenly show me arriving 15 minutes ahead of schedule. But if I stopped at a traffic light for 30 seconds, the GPS would report I'd be arriving late.

Nevertheless, the ability to set a desired arrival time and see how closely you'll arrive to that desired time is a great feature unique to TomTom.

Figure 97: Calculating Route

Route calculation time varied according to the total distance of the trip; short trips calculated quickly, longer ones took a while. Compared to other GPS units, the GO 740 is slightly slower at route calculation, but not significantly so.

Figure 98: Toll Warning

If the proposed route will involve a toll road, the GO 740 will ask if you want to avoid the toll. This warning can be disabled via the preferences menu (it's on be default), if desired.

Figure 99: Map Screen

The map screen is shown while navigating to your destination.